Keyboard music synthesizers are well known and universally available. In one example, a keyboard music synthesizer includes a set of mechanical keys linked to an electronic circuit that synthesizes and then plays a note corresponding to the key depressed. Keyboard music synthesizers are generally less expensive and more compact than the standard instruments they are intended to replace.
There are two forms of keyboard music synthesizers, those having full size keyboards and those having smaller than full size keyboards. As the keyboard size decreases, it becomes increasingly less like the real instrument and in some cases the keys are so small as to allow depression of a single key difficult.
Generally, the full size keyboards are not very portable. Full size keyboards (or even ¾ and ½ scale versions) while often light enough to be transported, are bulky and awkward to carry and maneuver. Keyboards that are small enough to easily carry and maneuver generally have keys too small to play “real” music on. Alternatives, such as personal computer keyboards suffer from the distinct disadvantage of not having the layout of a musical keyboard. When a musical keyboard is displayed on a portable computer screen, the “keys” are very not in a natural position relative the users hands and thus awkward to play.